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Xanathar's Guide in Dragonlance

So Xanathar's Guide is coming at the end of next month, with various classes and subclasses that have been tested out in Unearthed Arcana being published, supposedly 25 in all.
Bard: College of Glamour - Good for Elves or Kender, but I don't know specifically where fey magic really comes in. No realms on Krynn are particularly close to the Gray realm of spirits and faeries. There are places like Darken Wood of course, so I guess if someone wants to play a fey uncanny bard you could certainly do so.

Cleric: Forge Domain - This belongs to Reorx of course. I also think Dragonlance's pantheon is small enough that we should be able to have a unique domain for each god. I have been chipping away at it, so this is my scheme:

* Wizards of High Sorcery Wizard subclass uses the Arcana Domain
Fighter: Cavalier - The class dragonlance needs almost more than any other, for the knightly archetype. You can certainly tell as well that the original setting was built in the shadow of Unearthed Arcana in 1st edition. Knights of Solamnia and Knights of Nereka obviously, but other knighthoods too.

Fighter: Arcane Archer - This one would be for the elves I think, particularly the Silvanesti. I don't have much to say about it.

Fighter: Samurai - Some Dragonlance fans would dismiss this out of hand given the eurocentric flavour of Ansalon, but I have the perfect place to put it my dragonlance campaign, The Irda, the Nunzta and the Oni of Golthuu. Other places to use this class would be the Isles of Clare Elian. Otherwise it could be used as the members of the Order of the Rose if you believe Mike Mearls that the term Samurai can be separated from its feudal japanese cultural context, and just want the cinematic samurai who is supremely skilled, noble and indomitable.
Paladin: Oath of Redemption - I would like to see an order of Knighthood that actually believes that core Dragonlance tenant that "Evil turns upon itself but Good redeems its own" in Dragonlance, possibly attached to the Church of Mishakal. More interesting than "healing hands" or "Hospitallers" anyway, though obviously the Church of Mishakal would have an order of healing paladins as well. Citadel of Light might be a good place to headquarter the order, with castles built on the fringes of cursed lands. The Redeemers seeking to heal the dragonspawn of the New Swamp and restore their humanity for example.
Ranger: Horizon Walker - This one I'm finding the hardest to incorporate into Dragonlance actually, and I might even want to ban it from being used in the game. Planar travel on Krynn is very rare and very dangerous compared with the Forgotten Realms, so some abilities would be fairly worthless. If one had a very mage-centric game that involved travel to the Gray, or the Abyss, or the Astral Sea or whatever, then perhaps it would make sense to have one of these characters. A ranger order sponsored by the Order of High Sorcery to hunt planar creatures or rifts in prime material is also a possibility, but again, unless you are specifically doing that kind of campaign a horizon walker ranger is going to be fairly useless.
Rogue: Inquisitive - Investigator rogue, not really much to say about this either. Good perhaps for the Order of Aesthetics, or for someone who wants to solve Murders in Tarsis. I know something like this showed up in Dragonlance sourcebook in 3e, but I don't think anybody cared. Dragonlance isn't really a campaign setting for hardboiled detective stories like say, Ravenloft and Eberron. That said, it would work perfectly fine in Dragonlance, unlike the Horizon Walker ranger.

Sorcerer: Divine Soul - Trampas already started a thread on this class, and I discuss my thoughts on it there.
Sorcerer: Shadow - I''m surprised this hasn't got more interest from Dragonlance fans about this one, given the prominence of the shadow sorcerer in the 5th Age. Thematically it works fairly well for any number of evil spellcasters from the Order of the Black Robes to the Order of the Thorn, given the strong association of evil magic with darkness. I would probably use it as a class for people possessed by shadow wights or touched by them, or maybe perhaps a child of those who (as a result of the shadow wights) never were.

Warlock: Celestial Patron - I think gods interacting with mortals and granting them power even though they aren't worshippers is a well worn enough trope now that we can accept it in Dragonlance. These would be the pacts made by the Gods of light (or their powerful servants) to aid in the goals they want to mortal to perform even if that mortal doesn't worship (or maybe even particularly like) that particular god.

Fighter: Cavalier - The class dragonlance needs almost more than any other, for the knightly archetype. You can certainly tell as well that the original setting was built in the shadow of Unearthed Arcana in 1st edition. Knights of Solamnia and Knights of Nereka obviously, but other knighthoods too.

Agreed. In a way, this is taking us back to our roots.

Fighter: Arcane Archer - This one would be for the elves I think, particularly the Silvanesti. I don't have much to say about it.

The example Mearls gave in the arcane archer video is perfect for a kirath. Which I suddenly want to stat up.

Rogue: Inquisitive - Investigator rogue, not really much to say about this either. Good perhaps for the Order of Aesthetics, or for someone who wants to solve Murders in Tarsis. I know something like this showed up in Dragonlance sourcebook in 3e, but I don't think anybody cared. Dragonlance isn't really a campaign setting for hardboiled detective stories like say, Ravenloft and Eberron. That said, it would work perfectly fine in Dragonlance, unlike the Horizon Walker ranger.

I'm going to disagree with you a bit here. I think this role sounds perfect for the Legion of Steel. Now, put that in a smaller, regional campaign and it works.

Kendermage had a game set in Tarsis. This would have been great as we investigated the going-ons of the city.

Sorcerer: Shadow[/B] - I''m surprised this hasn't got more interest from Dragonlance fans about this one, given the prominence of the shadow sorcerer in the 5th Age. Thematically it works fairly well for any number of evil spellcasters from the Order of the Black Robes to the Order of the Thorn, given the strong association of evil magic with darkness. I would probably use it as a class for people possessed by shadow wights or touched by them, or maybe perhaps a child of those who (as a result of the shadow wights) never were.

I'm going to stat up the Shadow Sorcerer as soon as I get this. Of course, Kobold Press also had their shadow sorcerer, and I really loved it. I may have to do two different builds.

Fighter: Cavalier - The class dragonlance needs almost more than any other, for the knightly archetype. You can certainly tell as well that the original setting was built in the shadow of Unearthed Arcana in 1st edition. Knights of Solamnia and Knights of Nereka obviously, but other knighthoods too.

What do you mean? UA was published after (most of) the original DL modules were published.

It is the spirit of the game, not the letter of the rules, which is important. Never hold to the letter written, nor allow some barracks room lawyer to force quotations from the rule book upon you [...] YOU ARE CREATOR AND FINAL ARBITER.
E. G. Gygax, Dungeon Masters Guide, 1979.

I still feel that the Legion of Steel is going to be the hardest one to adapt based on the material that has already been published or revealed. If the cavalier is the answer to the Knights of Solamnia or the Purple Knights in FR, what do you think would be better suited for the Legion? Have you seen anything widely used for the Harpers, for example?

What do you mean? UA was published after (most of) the original DL modules were published.

I think he means DLA, which comes out around UA, and where DLA had the knights of the Solamnia as classes where the DL modules do not.

Fanwank
Formerly from Wikipedia, circa 2006-7, A fanwank is [...] an attempt by fans of a work of fiction to explain or justify plot holes or continuity errors, often through convoluted contrivances...

I still feel that the Legion of Steel is going to be the hardest one to adapt based on the material that has already been published or revealed. If the cavalier is the answer to the Knights of Solamnia or the Purple Knights in FR, what do you think would be better suited for the Legion? Have you seen anything widely used for the Harpers, for example?

I think the Legion is the easiest. They're a faction. Anyone who subscribes to their ordeals can get in.

If you want to represent the classes, they likely can be easily adapted.

Barbarian: Ancestral Guardian Hey, a barbarian path that fits with those barbarians with "Que" or "Shu" in their name somewhere, basically the descendants of what the Solamnics called Tsorathelm. What is fun about this path is that it allows your character to manifest actual ancestral spirits, so it works well for a shaman that Goldmoon didn't convert. Also works to explain how Goldmoon took to the mystical schools of necromancy and spiritualism so easily.

Barbarian: Storm Herald There are three types here, Desert/Sea/Arctic, which manifest a living storm around them. Again, this works well for barbarian shamans The easiest to match is the Ice Folk, who make excellent arctic storm herald barbarians. The sea barbarians are a little harder to match, but it could fit the Tarmak, the Sea Elves, the Minotaurs or the Saifhumi... but really Reavers who worship Zeboim seem the best fit no matter the race. For the desert barbarians I know everyone's first thought is for the Khur, but I think they would be more likely among the Centaurs of Duntillok given the holy sites to Sirrion found nearby.

Barbarian: Zealot Kiri-Jolioth, Sirrion and Sargonnas would mostly sponsor these guys I think. Dwarves get pretty zealous about Reorx, but maybe Takhisis through her cult of Tamex Mercury among the the Klar Dwarves (mentioned in the Dwarven Kingdoms of Krynn boxed set) is a better fit.

Cleric: Grave Domain Only place I can really think of where to put it is for Neutral aligned clerics of Chemosh. The Death domain in the DMG suits Chemosh so much better though that it is kind of pointless. Otherwise I did mention a few years ago that Gilean could take on aspects of the good parts of death by being the judge of the dead (since he writes down peoples lives in the Tobril) but that went over like a lead balloon with pretty much everyone. Otherwise, we don't really have a Kelemvor or Raven Queen deity amongst the gods.

Bard: College of Whispers Started a thread about this (which I should really pick back up) because I knew it was coming. Good for manipulative bards, and if I ever play a bard again in 5e, it would probably be the college for me. I would probably put this bardic college in either Lemish, Ergoth, or Nereka, with Ergoth being the most interesting option to me. It would liven Northern Ergoth up a bit if Castle Crimson was filled with these wolves.

Ranger: Monster Slayer Based on their abilities to foil evil spellcasters and stop teleportation, this is a natural fit for the renegade hunters of the Orders of High Sorcery, perhaps with a further customized arcane (int based) spell list. Otherwise they could work for an order of rangers on the territorial borders of Golthuu who have to deal with monsters, demons and spellcasters of the Ogre Magi.

Rogue: Scout A good subclass of rogue for Dragonlance which tends to have more overland travel than Greyhawk or the Realms. Also good for a rogue that can get along with Knights of Solamnia when adventuring. Or if you use Lemish as I do, as a good rogue to play a Robbin Hood against Solamnic interlopers in the Lemish Woods.

Monk: Drunken Master Hmm... what to do with this one. Well in Dragonlance people are always drinking dwarf spirits made with fermented mushrooms, so I guess dwarves could be the origins of this particular monastic tradition. Which would be very popular and spread quickly because you are getting drunk on fermented psychedelics.

Yep, that pretty much explains everything in the monk's class abilities, plus all the stuff the class can do in unearthed arcana. An unusual path for mysticism in dragonlance, but not so novel in the real world.

Bard: College of Swords - For the player who wants to emulate swordplay as more of a dance, or combine music with swashbuckling. Some of the larger and more sophisticated cities like Palanthas, Gwynned, Zaradene or Sanction would be a good place for these guys. Otherwise, if we really emphasize arabian sword dancing traditions, it could be native to Khur, They look like swashbucklers to me though in their game mechanics.

Druid: Circle of Dreams - For the druids that hang around with the faerie. We know Dragonlance has faerie which exist on the fringes of the world, though the relationship between the faerie realms and Krynn have never really been explored.

Druid: Circle of Shepherd - These are the druid who are friends of the animals and worship beast totems similar to totem barbarian shamans found in the PHB. I've long been in favour of druids and barbarians worshiping the beast lords (figures such as the Forestmaster Unicorn, Harkanos the Boar, Bast the Cat lord, The White Stag, Canus the Black Wolf etc.)

Monk: Kensei - Monk tradition that involves using a sword like a sensible person. Good for wandering swordsmen of all types, though I would probably favour Irda or elves for this kind of warrior.

Monk: Sun Soul - Monk that shoots deadly lazers of radiant magic from his fists. Works for an order of monks worshiping some kind of aspect of Paladine as the sun king. Otherwise, reflavour the radiant damage for fire damage for monks of Sirrion, though that is already sort of covered with the way of 4 elements.

Paladin: Oath of Conquest - Paladins of Sargonnas would be good for this oath, but anyone looking to carve out a kingdom in Ansalon would suit. I imagine many Knights of Black Lily have taken this oath.

Ranger: Gloom Stalker - Might be a refined version of the underdark stalker that is more about stealth and ambushes in the dark rather than underdark terrain. Can't be sure until we get the book, as there is no unearthed arcana with this name,

Rogue: Mastermind - Supposedly for the thief who is the boss behind the scenes, but could also work in Dragonlance for a rogue who commands a clandestine circle of Nerekans, Solamnics or Legionnaires of Steel.

Rogue: Swashbuckler - Like the Sword bards, a good match for the mercantile cities of Solamnia and the Newsea. Particularly perhaps in the Solamnic empire now that there are all these petty nobles who will have their opportunities for adventure curtailed under a more stable Solamnic Empire.

Warlock: Hexblade - Supposedly a fix for the underwhelming pact of the blade warlock in the player's handbook. Flavour text is based on a cursed sword that the character wields, and the most famous one I know of in Dragonlance is the sword of tears.

So that should be it for looking at the new subclasses. Except for the Horizon Walker they all seem to fit into the setting somewhere without too much difficulty.